Everybody makes mistakes. But not me.

I want to update the blog, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what to write about. The last couple of weeks have been overwhelming and uneventful (in terms of blogging) all at once. For the last couple weeks I have felt exhausted and we have tried to pare down the non-essentials--keeping the pace of work and home is tiring! After having had the opportunity this afternoon to take a long nap with Sophia I am feeling like being productive. While I have the desire to be productive with the blog, the creativity is not coming, so we're going to at this Christmas letter style with a short update on everyone.

Sophia is doing great. She is very happy to be back in school. Each day she talks about her "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" who she enjoys playing with. Each day I ask what her boyfriend and girlfriends' names are and each day she tells me that she doesn't know. We made progress this week. She came home last night and said that her girlfriend's name is Cordelia. I asked Sophia if she asked her friend what her name was and Sophia told me, "No that's just what everyone else was calling her so I figured it must be her name." Guess so.

Sophia informed us the other night that "Everybody makes mistakes. But not me." Must be nice.

Sophia is going through a phase where she is sure that her room is too dark and scarey at night. With one bad sleeper already in the house already, we are not excited about this development. The other weekend we were about ready to give Sophia whatever she wanted in order to get her to stay in her room all night. She decided she wanted a lamp to keep on all night. Fine. We decided to try out the lamp from Grant's room before buying Sophia one of her own. Grant's light worked a week or so and then Sophia decided that she needs one that is more "Girl-i-ful". We'll see.

Grant is doing good too. His big thing right now is his walkie-talkies. Grandma and Grandpa Owens gave him a set for his birthday and they are favorite toy right now. Of course he still loves the trampoline, though right now he prefers to jump with mom or dad. This is one of the best ways I have found to get information about Grant's day at school. In order for me to keep jumping with him, Grant has to answer questions about his day. Who knows if it's accurate information, but at least he's talking!

Grant continues to do well in school. Surprisingly, recess is Grant's least favorite part of the day right now. I think it's the lack of structure that is frustrating to him. On the other hand he is doing MUCH better at PE, music, art, and health than he did last year. We are also hearing that he is participating in his regular classroom more in terms of joining in group discussions and such.

I mentioned a while back that Grant had been having a difficult time in church. We are very happy that that phase has passed. Church is once again a happy place for Grant. We are very thankful that our friend, Erin, who has years of experience in special education, is Grant's Sunday School teacher. Once again Grant is excited to go to church on Sundays and is no longer having meltdowns when we leave church. This is a wonderful development for ALL of us. If practicing your faith is important to you, it is REALLY hard to have church be the most stressful place you go each week! (One day I intend to post about the importance of making churches welcoming to individuals/families with special needs. Get excited, I'm good at soap boxes.)

Travis continues to love his job. (Fortunately, I've moved on from be jealous of him to being happy for him.) His position seems wonderfully suited for him as it is very team and relationally oriented. For the first time in the almost nine years that we have been married, Travis has a job that he loves. In ways I feel like I am getting to see a new side of him--this side that loves his work.

Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed with work the past couple of weeks things are going well for me too. The only down side is that I can't figure out when to run. Over the summer I was training for a half marathon this October. I did great over the summer and was quite proud of myself. I can't figure out when to run now though between working and spending time with the family, so I'm not sure if I'm going to make that half marathon or not. Oh well.

I have to say that while I am not excited at all about the silliness that goes on with a presidential election, I am excited about the outcome. (Don't worry, I'm not going to be political here.) With a black man on one ticket and a woman on the other, I am excited for my kids either way. Don't get me wrong, I definitely favor one ticket over the other (not gonna say which). I am thrilled though that either way, the first pres./vice pres. team that my kids will remember will have either a woman on it or a black man. I think that's great. They will grow up believing it's normal for either a woman or a person of color to be the leader of our country.